What to expect in Brisbane City Council’s 2025 budget
Brisbane’s Lord Mayor has hinted at what Wednesday’s budget will include, addressing speculation over rates changes and new levies, while flagging what council will be throwing more cash at.
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More cash for the crumbling Story Bridge will feature in Brisbane City Council’s 2025 budget as well as changes to wheelie bins, while on-time rates payment discounts will continue and levies of all kinds have been ruled out.
It comes as Labor launched a savage pre-emptive blow to the LNP administration, accusing it of “gloating’’ about $470m in spending cuts which have seen the loss of hundreds of council staff in two years, while senior councillors went on expensive overseas trips.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner told council’s weekly meeting on Tuesday that residents would not be slugged with any special levies including transport, infrastructure or cyclone charges, but “Australia’s most generous’’ pensioner rebates would remain.
Labor Leader Jared Cassidy called on him to keep rates rises below inflation, but Mr Schrinner instead promised that residential rates would remain the lowest of any council area in the southeast.
More spending on the Story Bridge would be included in the budget, although he did not reveal details.
In other sweeteners, the pensioner rebate will rise $50 to $1298 and the popular $2 Summer Dips council pool entry will continue.
As flagged in the March quarterly financial update, this year’s $4.1bn budget will include a $298m surplus, with debt easing to $2.9bn by 2028/29.
As previously promised, 85 per cent of spending would be in the suburbs.
Council scoffed at speculation from Labor that a citywide green bin rollout would be included in the budget, as part of a new five-year contract with bin provider SULO Australia.
The contract included smaller 140l red bins, but a council spokeswoman denied Labor claims that Brisbane would follow the lead of councils such as Redlands and give people the choice of downsizing their red bins in exchange for subsidised or free green-topped garden waste bins.
Aerial photos at the Nundah council depot showed thousands of wheelie bins were currently stored there, sparking speculation of a citywide rollout of green bins.
“Residents can expect a responsible budget, a balanced budget, a budget that respects the fact that it’s residents’ money, not council’s money, that we’re talking about here,’’ Mr Schrinner said.
“It is also a budget that keeps our commitment to the people of Brisbane ... to have the lowest rates in southeast Queensland for our residents.
“That is something we promised last year at the election and that is something that tomorrow’s budget will deliver.
“We know that other councils are introducing, or have introduced, new levies on their rates (but) I can confirm we will not be introducing a cyclone levy, we will not be introducing an infrastructure levy and we will not be introducing a transport levy.
“What we will do is we will have Australia’s most generous pensioner rebate scheme, and that will continue, one that is hundreds and hundreds of dollars more than any other council provides.
“We will also make sure that residents will keep their on-time payment discount, which is not something that all councils have.’’
Mr Schrinner said the promises were possible only because council had cut costs, with the March quarterly financial update revealing $470m had been slashed from the $4bn annual Brisbane budget.
He said council had been upfront from late 2023 and again last year that spending discipline was necessary to keep rates low.
Meanwhile Mr Cassidy called for an end to cuts.
“In the last 12 months, they’ve reduced the budget by half a billion dollars, meaning less basic services in the suburbs like tree maintenance, drainage, fixing footpaths and playgrounds, and road resurfacing,” he said.
“At the same time, we saw budget blowouts on Brisbane Metro and Moggill Road, and the threat of a toll on the Story Bridge.
“The Lord Mayor’s recent plans to turn Mount Coot-tha into Brisbane’s ‘Singapore Gardens By the Bay’ says a lot about his priorities when Brisbane is crippled by congestion, is seeing the Story Bridge crumble and is facing record high rates.
“How can you introduce glamping tents on Mount Coo-tha while bulldozing tents in other Brisbane parks, where people with nowhere to go are sheltering?
“We know this LNP Lord Mayor invests in projects that give him a flashy media headline but he fails to deliver the basics to ratepayers.’’
Independent Councillor Nicole Johnston accused the LNP of making it more difficult to scrutinise the budget, saying for the first time in at least 17 years Opposition councillors would not be given hard copies of the voluminous documents.
Instead, they would have to electronically download the budget, after 11am on Wednesday when Mr Schrinner began his address in the council chamber.
Journalists would get access to the documents during the traditional budget lockup earlier in the morning.
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